Samsung assumes that most people want to do some level of health and fitness tracking on their Galaxy Watch. Even if that’s true for you, there are a few lesser-known health settings that could be unnecessarily draining your battery. If you’re not checking the data, it makes sense to disable them.
While some people use a Galaxy Watch to track every workout and health metric, others just want simple apps and notifications. The truth is, you can save quite a bit of battery by disabling a handful of health settings. How many you decide to turn off depends on your interest in health and fitness.
Continuous heart rate tracking
Give your heart a break
Right out of the box, your Galaxy Watch is set up to record your heart rate. However, on some models, the default setting is “Measure continuously.” This is overkill for anyone who isn’t interested in going on a deep dive into heart rate data.
Now, you have two other options to choose from. If you want to keep some heart rate tracking, choose the “Every 10 mins” option. When this is enabled, measurements are only taken every 10 minutes when you’re not active. For those who don’t care about it at all, there’s a “Manual only” mode—only you can trigger a heart rate reading. Find these options at Settings > Health > Heart rate.
Automatic workout detection
Another thing that your Galaxy Watch is set up to track by default is “workouts.” I say “workouts” in quotes because it’s a lot less serious than it sounds. In this case, “workouts” can include just walking to work or riding your bike to the train station.
When “Auto detect workouts” is enabled, your watch is constantly monitoring your movements to detect an activity. If it thinks you’ve been doing a workout for a few minutes, it will kick in and start tracking your vitals, location, and other variables, depending on the specific activity. Needless to say, this can eat up quite a bit of battery.
The good news is you can choose to completely disable this or limit it to a few activities. Go to Settings > Health > Activities to detect.” Turn off any or all of the activities you’d like. Some also have the option to automatically record your location, which can also be disabled.
Related
The most useful Samsung Galaxy Watch features that aren’t enabled by default
Samsung has never been scared to include as many options as possible in its devices. That includes the Galaxy Watch as well, of course, but not all of the best features are enabled fresh out of the box. Let’s make sure you haven’t overlooked some grayed-out toggles.
Advanced sleep tracking measurements
Sleep tracking doesn’t have to be so deep
Sleep tracking is a pretty cool thing to do with a Galaxy Watch, but it can stretch the limits of how long the battery lasts. When do you find the time to charge the watch if it’s on your wrist while you sleep? If you like to track your sleep, but aren’t interested in the more detailed metrics, you can make a compromise.
SpO2 and skin temperature measurements require continuous use of the Galaxy Watch’s infrared sensors. Disabling these two metrics will reduce the sensor strain and help you wake up with a bit more battery in the tank. Go to Settings > Health > Sleep and toggle off “Blood oxygen” and “Skin temperature.”
Limit health features in Power Saving mode
The Galaxy Watch has a handy “Power Saving” mode that automatically kicks in when the battery is running low. By default, it turns off the wake-up gestures, always-on display, and Wi-Fi. It also limits the CPU and things running in the background.
To save even more battery when Power Saving mode is enabled, you can take the extra step of limiting health features as well. This will disable workout auto detection, heart rate alerts, and various background tracking. To do it, go to Settings > Battery > Limit health features. Turn it on.
Tailor your watch to your lifestyle
The beauty of having so many options on a Galaxy Watch is that you can truly make it feel like your own. Health and fitness is a category of features that smartwatch brands love to talk about, but it’s simply not important to everyone who wears one. Do yourself—and your battery—a favor and disable things that you don’t use.